Creating a Custom Contact List View (Admin)

In this article:

• Setting Up a Custom List
• Adding Columns to a Custom List
• Understanding Data Sources

When accessing the different areas of Actionstep, you may want to customize your view to show you only those items you are most interested in. For example, you may want to organize your contacts into logical groups and then display those groups in the Contacts menu. To do this, you create a customized contact list. When you select that item or group from the menu, you will see only those clients that qualify to be in the list. 

For example, say you want to organize your matters into four groups: Clients, Employees, Third Parties, and Associates. You can create these groups and then create lists of contacts that will appear within them. You can choose which specific properties of a contact determine which list the contact is included in. 

Setting Up a Custom List

To set up a custom list: 

1. In Actionstep, go to Admin > Custom list views. The Custom List Views page appears.
2. Click Manage in the Contact list views section. The Custom Participant Lists page appears. 
3. Click Create New List. The Edit Custom List page appears.
4. In the List Setup section, provide the following information: 
   • List Name: Enter a name for the list you are creating.
   • Description: Enter a description of what information is displayed in the list. 
   • Sort Order: Specify where you want the list to appear in a menu group name. For example, if you are creating three lists that you want to appear under a group heading called Contacts, give them sort orders of 10, 20 and 30, which means the list with sort order 10 will appear first and the one with 30 will appear last. If you do not specify any order they will appear in alphabetical order.
   • Menu Group Name: Enter the name for the group you want to assign the list to. If you plan to include multiple lists in a group, note the spelling and case you use for the name so that you can reuse it for all lists. If you do not enter a group name, the list will appear under the Contacts menu in the main menu. 
   • In the System Role Permissions section, select at least one role you want the custom list to be available to. 
   • In the System Roles Default List, choose whether the custom list view is a default view for the associated role. 
   • In the Locked Filters section, choose the data that will "trigger" whether the contact will be included in the list. For example, if you want your contact to be shown if they're part of an active matter, select Active in the Participant of Matter with Status list. Select as many filters as you need. 
5. When finished setting up your list, click Save. 
6. When you click Save, the Column Definitions page appears. This page includes common details about a contact that you might want to include when reviewing a contact list. 
7. Review what columnar data will be shown in the list view. You can either add columns to this list or delete columns:
   • To add a column, click Add Column and then provide the required information in the window. Click Save when you are finished. (See Adding Columns to a Custom List below for more help with this.)
   • To remove a column, select the checkbox for the column and click Delete Column.
8. Once your custom list is created, click Preview (while on the Column Definitions page) to see how your list looks. If needed, you can continue to make changes to fine-tune it.
9. When finished reviewing and optionally updating the column definitions, close the window.

Adding Columns to a Custom List

To do this:

1. Access the Column Definitions page for your custom list by doing one of the following:
   • Create a new custom list (as described in the previous section), save it, and proceed to the Column Definitions page. 
   • Select the checkbox for an existing custom list at the Custom Actions List page and click Edit Columns.
2. Click Add Column. The Column Definitions page appears.
3. In the Column Setup section, provide the following information:
   • Enter a Label for the column. 
   • Select a Data Source. (See Understanding Data Sources below for information on data sources.)
   • Click Use Related Matter to use data from a similar matter.
   • Enter a Default Position for the column.
     NOTE:  Columns are automatically created with default positions spaced 100 "positions" apart. This allows you to insert columns between these columns by selecting position numbers between these values. So, for example, if you want a new column to be shown between the columns with Default Positions of 100 and 200, you would enter a number like 150.
   • Select your Participant Data from the drop-down list. 
4. Click Save to save your changes.

Understanding Data Sources

Data Sources are used to group fields from the same area of the Actionstep database to make them easier to find. New data sources and fields are added from time to time. The data sources shown below have the following meanings:

Related Articles:

• Using Custom List Views
• Deleting Contact List Views
• Getting to Know the Contact Card